Motorola Atrix review

Can this be the phone that brings back Moto's Razr effect?

Motorola Atrix
The definitive Motorola Atrix review

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

If you want to browse the web at high speeds, then the Motorola Atrix is probably one of the phones for you.

Equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11 supporting A,B,G and N, it loads pages in a jiffy – partly due to the speed of the connection, but also due to the processor which, again, whirrs along in the background and is able to process pages very quickly indeed.

Motorola atrix

The entire Guardian.co.uk front page loaded up in fewer than three seconds on Wi-Fi, and just marginally longer on 3G over HSDPA.

The wonderful Android browser is present here and works brilliantly, as it does on most other Android devices. As with all modern browsers (including those on the Apple iPhone 4 and BlackBerry Torch), it's WebKit-based and does a stellar job.

Motorola atrix

Pages load quickly and, thanks to Flash support coming as standard on the Froyo build onwards (for the phones that can support it), they look beautiful. Displayed in full colour on screen they enable the option to tap to zoom in on the elements you want to concentrate on.

Motorola atrix

Playing video embedded in sites is simple, and the Atrix does this happily. Zoomed out, sites look great (though the text is often illegible because of the size). However, it reformats perfectly when you double tap and zoom in.

Text reflow is supported, but doesn't automatically resize when you pinch and zoom to change the screen size - instead a slow double tap is needed.

As you scroll down pages, you may expect to see a lag as it renders, but that's doesn't happen on the Motorola Atrix. By the time your finger has whizzed down, the page has loaded already. It really is fast.

Motorola atrix

There's no customisation on the browser – it's vanilla Android – but it's such a strong part of the operating system that Motorola clearly feels it doesn't need to change a thing about it.

Of course, you can install others, and there are many excellent browsers on the Market including Dolphin, Opera Mini and Firefox. But unless you have a serious issue with any one element of the stock Android browser, it's unlikely you'll feel a need to change the default offering on the Atrix.